The Year of Nerd Cinema?

Earlier this year I was lamenting the pathetic state of nerd movies in 2006, and wondering why we weren’t getting more of a bounce out of the runaway box office successes of LOTR, Spider-Man, the Matrix, etc., in terms of studios greenlighting geek flix. Now I’m thinking maybe we’re seeing that bounce. This morning we have:

— that Stardust trailer, finally. One of those Neal Gaiman newfangled fairy tales, with a strong Princess Bride flava. Robert de Niro, Ricky Gervais, a blond Claire Danes, etc. Be interesting to see how this plays — I saw and quite enjoyed Gaiman’s low-budget CGI-fest MirrorMask.

— the Snyder thing reminded me that Las Vegas seems to be the hip city to destroy these days. Having rebuilt from the Con Air disaster, Sin City now faces zombies, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, and now the full Mad Max treatment in this surprisingly watchable Resident Evil: Extinction trailer. (Oh Milla Jovovich, what happened?)

— You really need to watch the trailer for Day Watch, the second movie in what everybody calls the Russian Matrix trilogy, and I guess I will too. The epic struggle between dark and light causes a woman to drive a car on the side of a building.

— Ain’t It Cool News, the website where exclamation points go to die, links to a ‘sizzle reel’ for The Golden Compass, which is based on the Philip Pullman novel, and which New Line is hoping will be the new LOTR franchise this December. Many people I love and respect love those Pullman books. I don’t, really, but that’s because there’s something deeply wrong with me, and even I can admit that Pullman has a wonderful visual imagination. I’m ready to see me some armored polar bears. (If I were you I’d hit this link sooner rather than later — the footage has a leaked feel to it, and may come down.)

— Ain’t It Cool also has some long-lens snapshots from the set of the next Narnia movie, Prince Caspian — some beach scenes that look to be from fairly early on in the story. Yeah, OK, basically they look like outtakes from somebody’s junior high field trip.